The Sir2 protein is a deacetylase which uses NAD as a cofactor (Imai et al., 2000; Moazed, 2001; Smith et al., 2000; Tanner et al., 2000; Tanny and Moazed, 2001). Unlike other deacetylases, many of which are involved in gene silencing, Sir2 is insensitive to histone deacetylase inhibitors like trichostatin A (TSA) (Imai et al., 2000; Landry et al., 2000a; Smith et al., 2000).